Elections 2019

Opinion

Tajik Jet ‘Bombs’ Takhar Border Line

Officials said on Monday that a Tajikistan jet carried out airstrikes in Darqad district in Takhar province along the border.

Earlier in the day, the provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Jawid Hejri confirmed the incident and said a clash broke out on Sunday afternoon between drug smugglers in Afghanistan and Tajik border guards.

He said Tajik border security fired a number of rockets into the area before “fighter jets” carried out an airstrike early Monday morning.

Hejri said the jets were “foreign” and were either from Russia or Tajikistan.

However, officials confirmed later in the day that there had been one fighter jet involved and that it was from Tajikistan.

According to officials, the area targeted was along the border in no-man's land between the two countries.

Hejri earlier stated two Tajik border guards were killed in the clash.

Security in the north-eastern province, that borders Tajikistan, has deteriorated in the past few months and regular clashes have broken out between Afghan security forces and anti-government armed groups, including the Taliban.

Dozens of check posts have also been attacked in recent weeks by the Taliban in the province.

Earlier this month reports emerged of at least 12 border police officers killed in a Taliban attack on a border town in the Dasht-e-Qala district, in Takhar.

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Officials said on Monday that a Tajikistan jet carried out airstrikes in Darqad district in Takhar province along the border.

Earlier in the day, the provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Jawid Hejri confirmed the incident and said a clash broke out on Sunday afternoon between drug smugglers in Afghanistan and Tajik border guards.

He said Tajik border security fired a number of rockets into the area before “fighter jets” carried out an airstrike early Monday morning.

Hejri said the jets were “foreign” and were either from Russia or Tajikistan.

However, officials confirmed later in the day that there had been one fighter jet involved and that it was from Tajikistan.

According to officials, the area targeted was along the border in no-man's land between the two countries.

Hejri earlier stated two Tajik border guards were killed in the clash.

Security in the north-eastern province, that borders Tajikistan, has deteriorated in the past few months and regular clashes have broken out between Afghan security forces and anti-government armed groups, including the Taliban.

Dozens of check posts have also been attacked in recent weeks by the Taliban in the province.

Earlier this month reports emerged of at least 12 border police officers killed in a Taliban attack on a border town in the Dasht-e-Qala district, in Takhar.